Dimitar Berbatov, Wes Brown and Rio Ferdinand all out, Rooney’s back

21 November 08 by Bill

Dimitar Berbatov has been ruled out of tomorrow’s trip to Aston Villa as well as Tuesdays visit to Villarreal. The striker, who came off injured after just half an hour in Bulgaria’s 6 – 1 defeat against neighbours Serbia has been given just a “slight chance” of returning in time for United’s visit to the City of Manchester stadium the following week.

Berbatov has been ever present in Ferguson’s first team since his arrival from Tottenham which has seen the Bulgarian score 6 goals; 4 of them in the Champions League.

Wes Brown has not played since October 25th and the Defender is now set for a few weeks on the sidelines: “Wes will be missing for a few weeks,” Ferguson said. “There’s no timescale on it, but may be about 4-5 weeks. It’s disappointing, but we’ve got cover with Gary (Neville) and Rafael, and John O’Shea can also play there.”

After missing England’s away victory over Germany on Wednesday, Rio Ferdinand looks set to miss tomorrows trip to Villa but Ferguson did reveal Wayne Rooney is back in training and should make his return to first team action.

“Rio is very doubtful for tomorrow, I don’t think he’ll make it,” Sir Alex Ferguson told his pre-match press conference. “Rooney has a good chance, he trained on Wednesday and Thursday and if he comes through today he should be involved”.